JOLIET, Ill. – One year ago, Brett Moffitt made headlines by winning at Chicagoland Speedway after barely securing a sponsor in time to make the trip to the 1.5-mile Illinois track.

Friday night, he made more headlines at Chicagoland by winning the Camping World 225 with an all-white, unsponsored No. 24 GMS Racing Chevrolet Silverado.

Moffitt used a lightning-quick pit stop to take the lead before the start of the final stage, then methodically drove away from Brandon Jones over the second half en route to his second NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series win of the season.

The defending Truck Series champion led 72 of the final 77 laps, only surrendering the top spot when he made his final pit stop with 31 to go. Moffitt beat Jones to the checkered flag by 3.950 seconds.

“We had a really good Chevy Silverado tonight,” said Moffitt of his ninth career Truck Series win. “Everyone at GMS gave us a great truck and we went out and capitalized on it. Last year, my buddy Marcus from Fr8Auctions.com and we won the race for them, and this year we didn’t find a sponsor, but we went out and won the race anyway.

“It’s a shame, but hopefully this will draw some awareness to our situation and help us going forward.”

Friday night’s dominant performance followed up Moffitt’s win at his home track, Iowa Speedway, from two weeks earlier after Moffitt inherited the victory when Ross Chastain was disqualified.

This time, there was no question about who had the fastest truck on the property.

“We didn’t get to do all this before,” noted Moffitt as he celebrated in victory lane. “Tonight, we do.”

The final stage was only interrupted by caution once, when Spencer Davis washed up into Grant Enfinger exiting turn four at lap 79, causing both trucks to hit the outside wall and collecting Austin Self in the process.

Moffitt actually had a close call in that exchange, surviving contact with Self down the backstretch that damaged the right side of his truck just before Self was collected in the chaos that erupted off turn four.

“I thought our night was going to be over at that point,” admitted Moffitt. “I saw the 22 get outside of the 88, the 88 tried to block it … and once the 22 started spinning down the track, it was lucky he only got my door and not my right-rear tire.

“All in all, it was no harm, no foul and the truck stayed fast.”

Once racing resumed for good with 63 laps left, Moffitt shot to the lead with a push from polesitter Austin Hill and never looked back after that.

Though Jones stayed out two laps longer than Moffitt and tried to run him down after the final cycle of pit stops concluded with 25 to go, he had to settle for his fourth-career runner-up finish in his 43rd start.

“I think we just needed laps,” Jones lamented. “It’s heartbreaking to hear those lap times come across the radio, when they’re saying I’m a half-tenth to a tenth of a second faster, and just knowing that you have too big of a gap to overcome. I don’t know if we could have done something different with pit strategy, but that’s the most fun I’ve had in a Truck Series race in a long time. It was a blast tonight.”

Stewart Friesen finished third, ahead of the Toyota Tundras of Harrison Burton and Hill.

Todd Gilliland, Ross Chastain, Matt Crafton, Anthony Alfredo and Dylan Lupton completed the top 10.

Veteran guard Darren Collison has decided to retire from the NBA after 10 seasons primarily to concentrate on helping the less fortunate through his Jehovah's Witness faith, he told ESPN's The Undefeated in a written letter.

"While I still love basketball, I know there is something more important, which is my family and my faith," Collison said. "I am one of Jehovah's Witnesses and my faith means everything to me. I receive so much joy from volunteering to help others and participate in a worldwide ministry. The joy I feel is unmatched. With that being said, I have decided to retire from the NBA."

The 31-year-old, who has made $43 million during his NBA career, was on target to secure a $10 to $12 million annual salary in free agency, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. But after long deliberation with agent Bill Duffy, Collison ultimately decided on retirement.

Collison averaged 12.5 points and 5.0 assists in 708 games through 10 seasons. The 2010 All-NBA rookie selection played for the New Orleans Hornets, Dallas Mavericks, LA Clippers, Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers.

Collison thanked several former teammates and NBA stars who inspired him during his career.

"I'm also appreciative of that great friendships that I have earned from my teammates, coaches, and front office personnel that I will treasure for a lifetime," Collison wrote. "Players such as Victor Oladipo, Russell Westbrook, DeMarcus Cousins, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, Dwayne Wade, and LeBron James that had a major impact on me competing at the highest level. I either have a close relationship with those that I have mentioned or they inspired me to work harder."

Collison said in the letter that while he had done his best to help the less fortunate, he will now have the ability to do more in retirement. He also plans on spending more time in ministry in his Jehovah's Witness faith, which he says has made him a better person.

"Basketball has been my life since I was a child," Collison wrote Friday. "I could never imagine finding anything that brings me more joy than I get from playing the game.".

Collison strongly thanked Duffy for his years of services. His biggest expression of gratitude, however, was directed at his wife, Ketosha.

"She has guided our family through everything you could imagine during the many NBA seasons. From the amount of moves that we've made, the day-to-day challenges we faced and all the while dealt with the emotions of an up and down season. She is our strength," Collison said.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Two days ago, 18-year-old Canadian racer Roman De Angelis graduated with honors from high school.

He’s well on his way to graduating from the 2019 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA by Yokohama with honors also.

In Friday’s 45-minute race at Watkins Glen Int’l, De Angelis drove the No. 79 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine to his seventh win in eight races this season.

De Angelis led every practice session prior to qualifying Friday morning, where he took his sixth pole position in seven tries. He briefly surrendered the lead to Max Root in the No. 7 Wright Motorsport Porsche coming out of Turn 1 on the first lap, but a couple of turns later, Root was collected by Riley Dickinson in the No. 53 Moorespeed Porsche.

The contact sent both the Nos. 7 and 53 cars off course and returned De Angelis to the lead. He would not be challenged the rest of the way en route to a 17.755-second victory over Jeff Kingsley in the No. 3 JDX Racing Porsche.

The win enabled De Angelis to extend his lead to 49 points over Kingsley in the standings for the Platinum Cup class for 911 GT3 Cup cars built between 2017 and 2019.

“I think I made a bit of a mistake on my own on the start, I’m kind of bummed about that, but obviously Max made a really good move,” said De Angelis of the early-race action. “I was pretty impressed by that. Then, going into the bus stop, I saw Riley on the outside. He missed his braking point, I think, by a lot, but I didn’t see him collecting Max, so I was able to take advantage of that and pull through and pull forward.

“Just an awesome car by Kelly-Moss again. With this heat and the abrasion, the Yokohama held up for us. It was a pretty crazy race.”

Kingsley, a veteran of Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Canada by Yokohama competing in the U.S. series for the first time this season, scored the first podium result of his GT3 Cup Challenge USA career.

After racing another JDX car earlier this season, Kingsley has moved into the team’s No. 3 Porsche, as Parker Thompson left the team due to unforeseen circumstances.

Root recovered from the opening-lap incident with Dickinson – who served a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility – to finish third in the No. 7 Wright Motorsports Porsche. Root also was involved in a later incident with Sean McAlister in the No. 11 JDX Racing Porsche, for which McAlister also received a drive-through for incident responsibility.

Driving the No. 68 Topp Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine, Jeff Mosing finished fourth overall and won the Platinum Masters class for drivers 45 years of age and over.

It was Mosing’s first GT3 Cup Challenge USA event since winning the Platinum Masters class in both races at Road America in 2017. Mosing was injured in a heavy GT3 Cup Challenge USA crash at Watkins Glen earlier that year.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to me,” Mosing said. “It’s something else. My old car, Trixie, came up for sale, I talked to (Topp Racing Founder/President) Todd Oppermann and said, ‘Hey, let’s fire up the band again.’ This was the place to do it.

“I’m so glad to be back in the series. I’m really impressed. The Yokohamas never fail, even in the 90 degree heat today. It was me having to manage the brake bias, and I finally got it figured out. I was able gap Metni and Poordad and let them battle it out. It was just a nice ride in the park, I guess you’d say.”

Platinum Masters points leader Alan Metni finished second in class and fifth overall in the No. 99 AM Motorsports/Kelly-Moss Porsche. Metni got around Masters polesitter Fred Poordad in the No. 20 Wright Motorsports entry late in the race to get the position.

Metni now leads Poordad by 14 points in the Platinum Masters standings with seven of 16 races on the season complete.

David Brule won the Yokohama Hard Charger Award in the No. 48 Kelly-Moss Road and Race Porsche as the driver who gained the most overall positions from start to finish in the Platinum Cup class in Race 1. Brule finished 16th overall after starting 22nd.

In the Gold Cup class for 911 GT3 Cup cars built between 2014 and 2016, Sebastian Carazo picked up his fifth victory in seven tries this season aboard the No. 25 NGT Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 Cup machine.

Carazo started the race from the class pole position and faced down a mid-race challenge from Rob Ferriol in the No. 5 Moorespeed Porsche to win the race.

“It was a great race, a very clean race,” Carazo said. “I had some slow traffic at the beginning of the race. Once I could get by them, it was put my head down, finish the race and then have some fun. I’m really excited to win this race. This was a baptism by fire last time I was here (in 2018). I really wanted to win this race and the next one. It’s good for the points, but it’s great for me for how I feel.”

Carazo now leads Kurt Fazekas by 19 points in the Gold Cup standings. Fazekas finished second in Gold Cup in the No. 52 Kelly-Moss Road and Race machine, with Ferriol coming home third.

JOLIET, Ill. – Joe Gibbs Racing has picked up Christopher Bell’s contract option for the 2020 season, keeping the 24-year-old Oklahoma native with the organization for another year.

Bell confirmed the extension to reporters on Friday, ahead of opening practice for the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Chicagoland Speedway.

“It’s really good that I have a job. Driving for Joe Gibbs Racing is where I want to be at,” said Bell. “I’m thankful that I get to go for another year.”

Bell has driven for JGR since 2017, when he joined the Xfinity Series ranks on a part-time basis. All 12 of his victories have come in Gibbs-prepared Toyotas.

Last year, Bell made the Championship 4 with JGR, and has a series-leading four victories this season at the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota Supra.

That rapid ascension has many believing that Bell is a virtual lock to head to the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Bell, however, doesn’t know which of NASCAR’s national divisions he’ll be racing in next year – at least at this juncture.

“It’s a little too early to tell,” Bell noted when asked what series he’ll call home.

JGR’s current Cup Series roster features 2015 champion Kyle Busch, 2017 champion Martin Truex Jr., two-time Daytona 500 winner Denny Hamlin and young gun Erik Jones.

Busch, Truex and Hamlin are all reportedly under contract for next season, and Jones has said several times this year that he expects to return to a JGR Cup car as well in 2020.

Where that leaves Bell at this point is uncertain, but he’s been quick to point out that he’s enjoying every minute of his time driving race cars in NASCAR’s second-highest series.

“I love the Xfinity Series and I love the cars,” Bell said. “I’ve said it multiple times, the rules package that we have right now is so much fun to drive. I love where I’m at.

“Next year, I have no idea where I’m going to be at, but if I’m in Xfinity again, I have a lot of fun racing there and I’m okay with that.”

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – On a sunny Friday afternoon at Watkins Glen Int’l, Winward Racing/HTP Motorsport and Mercedes-AMG stole the show in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge qualifying.

Dutchman Indy Dontje led the effort by earning his first Motul Pole Award in the team’s No. 33 Mercedes-AMG GT4 with a time of one minute, 54.709 seconds (106.704 mph).

Dontje is in the middle of his first full season with Winward Racing in the top-tier Grand Sport class after running a partial schedule in 2018.

Dontje’s pole for Saturday’s four-hour Tioga Downs Casino Resort 240 is Mercedes-AMG’s second of the season, after Owen Trinkler scored the top spot at Sebring International Raceway in March. The manufacturer has a total of three in the series.

“It’s really fast, we don’t even go to second gear,” said Dontje, who co-drives with Russell Ward. “It’s all third gear corners, here mostly high gear corners, which makes it pretty interesting and pretty difficult at some places. It’s really cool to be on pole here at The Glen.

“We’re going to change a few things, but the car in the base is really good. Actually, we don’t touch it so much and our engine and our engineer Tomas will do a great job on that and we will be prepared. Maximum prepared we can be for the race.”

Just a mere .171 seconds back and starting on the outside of the front row is fellow Winward teammate Christian Hohenadel in the No. 57 Mercedes-AMG.

Hohenadel co-drives with Bryce Ward, who is Winward Racing’s team owner and the father of Dontje’s co-driver.

Winners of the season-opening race, Paul Holton and Kuno Wittmer in the No. 75 Compass Racing McLaren GT4, will line up third on the grid alongside the victors from Sebring, Tyler McQuarrie and Tyler Westphal in the No. 39 Carbahn Motorsports Audi R8 GT4.

After scoring the team’s first win in the last race at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in May – which also was Hyundai’s first in Pilot Challenge – the No. 98 Bryan Herta Autosport team landed on top of the leaderboard once again in Friday’s qualifying session.

Michael Lewis scored his first Motul Pole Award with a time of 1:56.888 (104.715 mph) to lead the TCR field to green in tomorrow’s Tioga Downs 240.

His pole position comes in what will be his fourth start in the series tomorrow.

“I really just have to say thank you to Hyundai and my teammate Mark,” said Lewis, who co-drives with Mark Wilkins. “This Veloster N TCR was so hooked up in this qualifying session and to get this Motul P1 position award is really cool. You see a lot of cool drivers earning this and to be that lucky driver today is pretty honorable, so I feel really honored to be in this position.

“For the team itself we’ve had one year last year in motor series getting used to TCR and that really helps because coming into this series, we knew the car really well and how to tune it basically,” Lewis continued. “My teammate Mark Wilkins is super solid as a co-driver so we had that down. We just needed to get used to pit stops and once we got those down, we really did a nice job last race at Mid-Ohio. Now we’ve just got to keep going. We’re on a little bit of a roll here, got this pole and it’s all thanks to the team putting in the effort last year and doing their work in the offseason.”

BHA will be playing defense, though, with two Audi RS3 LMS race cars on their heels starting second and third on the grid.

Michael Johnson in the No. 54 for JDC-Miller Motorsports qualified his Audi in second, with Jay Salinsky putting the No. 23 FAST MD Racing Audi in third.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Round three of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America championship produced another exciting race, which seems to happen whenever the series visits Watkins Glen Int’l.

A total of 19 Huracan EVOs were on the grid on a hot, steamy day in western New York, and the field was looking to get back to racing after an almost three-month gap following the first two rounds of the season.

At the end of the 50-minute battle, the No. 29 entry from Change Racing, Lamborghini Charlotte was the overall, and Pro Class, winner for the second consecutive race.

Pole sitter Richy Antinucci held his position through the first part of the race after being challenged in the first few turns by the field behind him. He held that lead until pitting with just under 23 minutes remaining and turning the car over to co-driver Corey Lewis.

After the cars all cycled through their pit stops, Lewis was still in the lead.

The No. 34, with D. Bryce Miller behind the wheel, spun in the Esses with 12 minutes remaining and the first full course yellow of the race was brought out, promising to make the end of the race a close one.

There were five minutes remaining when the field was shown the green flag, which translated to about three laps remaining.

As the cars crossed the line, Lewis left the rest of the field in his rear-view mirror, opening almost a three second lead for the remainder of the race as he drove to victory.

“That last restart was probably a little more than what I wanted,” admitted Lewis. “We managed our tires and with the restart we knew we had enough tires to defend our lead. We timed that restart perfectly. Hats off to Richy, Change Racing and Lamborghini Charlotte and everybody involved. We have one more to go and we will see how that plays out.”

“It was a great race. I felt like we had a little gap and I tried to manage that and I wanted to give as much tire as possible to Corey, because it was hot and we didn’t know if we would have a yellow,” added Antinucci. “On the restart you saw what he could do. It was amazing.”

Andrea Amici and Sandy Mitchell in the No. 1 Prestige Performance/Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Paramus entry finished second in class.

The No. 46 from Precision Performance Motorsports, Lamborghini Palm Beach with Conor Daly and Brandon Gdovic was third.

The Pro-Am Class had its own drama throughout the 50 minutes as just after the start,
Jake Eidson (No. 09 US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Vancouver) suffered a drive-through penalty for jump-starting the race which knocked him out of the class lead.

That gave the lead to Ryan Hardwick in the No. 22 Dream Racing Motorsport, Lamborghini Atlanta and he held the lead until the pit stops were over.

After the stops, Damon Ockey re-gained the lead in the No. 09 from Supercross star Chad Reed who was making his first-ever start in Super Trofeo. Ockey held that lead for most of the second half of the race until the restart with five minutes remaining.

After that Bruno Junqueira in the No. 53 Prestige Performance Motorsport/Wayne Taylor Racing, Lamborghini Paramus assumed the lead and went on to win with his teammate Bradley Baker in their first race of the season.

Ockey and Eidson finished second place while Hardwick and Reed were third in class.

The Am Class featured a classic battle between two of the youngest drivers in the field in 21-year-old McKay Snow (No. 63 Change Racing, Lamborghini Charlotte) and 16-year-old Steven Aghakhani in the No. 6 US RaceTronics, Lamborghini Beverly Hills.

Snow, who won the first two rounds, jumped out to an early class lead with Aghakhani right behind through the first part of the race. Following the pit stops Aghakhani grabbed the lead and held a second and a half lead until the restart.

Snow regained the lead on the restart but Aghakhani quickly slipped back by him on that first lap and opened a slim half a second lead and held on for the class win in his first-ever Super Trofeo start.

Ashton Harrison was fastest in both qualifying sessions and her speed showed as she took the lead in LB Cup to start the race. When she passed the car along to her teammate Stephanie Cemo after the mandatory stop, the result was same as they were in the lead and remained in that position until there were about two minutes left in the race.

Mel Johnson in the No. 08 GMG Racing, Lamborghini Newport Beach, who won the first two rounds, moved around the No. 43 and took the class lead away from them after they held it for almost 48 minutes. The victory made him three-for-three this year.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Porsche GT3 Cup Sebring November Fest is coming to Sebring Int’l Raceway later this year.

The unique three-race, two-day event will be part of the annual IMSA Michelin SportsCar Encore this year and will replace the Global MX-5 Cup Challenge that ran as part of the Encore weekend in 2018.

“The entire weekend was a success last year and the addition of Porsche GT3 Cup promises to make this another memorable event for competitors and spectators,” IMSA CEO Ed Bennett said. “It is an opportunity for current IMSA teams to continue their year at an iconic venue and for others to enjoy the experience of an IMSA weekend and run their cars on Yokohama tires which is done throughout the season.”

The November Fest on-track Saturday schedule will feature a pair of practice sessions, qualifying and Race No. 1. They will finish the weekend with two races on Sunday. All three races will be 45 minutes.

The Porsche GT3 Cup portion of the weekend will be run to IMSA GT3 Cup Challenge sporting and technical regulations, and both Gen 1 and Gen 2 Porsche 991 GT3 Cup cars will be eligible to participate.

The field will feature a maximum of 60 cars and cars will be gridded by qualifying time. The qualifying driver must start race 1 on qualifying Yokohama tires.

Those signing up for this event will also have the opportunity to register for the 2020 Porsche GT3 Cup season during the entry process.

Entries for the Porsche GT3 Cup Sebring November Fest open on Sept. 18 and will close Oct. 22.